Intel Atom graphics troubles are DirectX related

If you remember, yesterday we wrote about Intel delaying its Cedar Trail Atom processors to November, well Intel got in touch with us saying that it had only officially said it would launch Cedar Trail in the second half of this year, so technically it's not late. This might be true as far as the official company lines go, but considering the processors had already been priced and listed for a September launch, we'll stick to our guns and say they're late and now we know the reason why.

If you remember, yesterday we wrote about Intel delaying its Cedar Trail Atom processors to November, well Intel got in touch with us saying that it had only officially said it would launch Cedar Trail in the second half of this year, so technically it's not late. This might be true as far as the official company lines go, but considering the processors had already been priced and listed for a September launch, we'll stick to our guns and say they're late and now we know the reason why.

Intel is having major driver problems, in fact the company has run into some DirectX related hurdles with Microsoft, rather than video decoding issues as we initially suspected. As such Intel is only expecting to ship 32-bit DX9 drivers come November. Yes, you read that correctly, DX9, it's not a typo. But hang on; doesn't Cedar Trail feature DX10.1 graphics? Well, yes, the graphics core is indeed DX10.1 compatible, but Intel's driver team is not going to have those drivers ready at launch.

If you want to run a 64-bit OS on your shiny new Atom machine come November you'll be disappointed as well, as Intel isn't expecting to have 64-bit DX9 drivers done until sometime near the end of the year. It seems like the driver problems don't quite end there though, as in as much as Intel will have initial Wireless Display drivers ready for launch, these drivers won't support the latest features of Intel's Wireless Display technology and new drivers aren't expected until Q1 next year. Also not available until Q1 2012 is support for Intel's Smart Connect technology, a kind of data push solution which means that even if your netbook in this case is in sleep mode, it'll receive emails etc. which is a neat trick Intel seems to have learnt from the smartphone market.

We also asked Intel as to why the company doesn't rely on reference drivers from Imagination Technologies, as the company behind the graphics core in Intel's new Atom processors – and many of its current Atom processors – have fully functional and Microsoft approved drivers that are ready to go. We're still waiting for a reply, but we'll be following up on that as soon as we hear back from Intel.

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